The formidable task of trying to win a third tournament in a row at The Open Championship is the sort of problem Justin Rose will happily take on. It is certainly a great deal preferable to the fool’s gold scenario he was wrestling with when the Claret Jug was last contested at Royal Liverpool in 2006.

Never mind the hottest player in the field at Hoylake. Back then, his game was so stone cold he could not even make the starting line-up. Instead of the old-world charm of the Dee Estuary he was living the life of Reilly with the millionaire set off the coast of the South of France in a luxury boat — and rather wishing that he wasn’t.

Relaxed: Justin Rose says he has nothing to prove ahead of The Open at Hoylake

‘That was certainly a strange week,’ he recalled. ‘I was half having a great time, living in the most lavish of environments, but people were asking me who was going to win The Open. There was a major going on, and so I didn’t really want to be in St Tropez.’

He is exactly where he wants to be this week. Brimming with confidence before the event that has become his No 1 priority.

And so after the various failures, from the rugby to the cricket to the tennis to the football to the cycling, the hopes of a British sporting summer now lie with this quiet 33-year-old who first came to light at The Open in 1998 when he finished joint fourth as a 17-year-old amateur.

With that stunning performance at Birkdale in mind Rose once said he would not feel his story was complete unless he won the Claret Jug. If truth be told, the millstone of that mental burden he placed upon himself has manifested itself in his poor record since, with not a single top-10 Open finish as a pro. But he has a more rational take now.

‘I did say that, didn’t I?’ he chuckled ‘I don’t think like that any more. A lot of that feeling went away when I won the United States Open last year. I’ve won my major now, and so it means I’m not going to The Open with any sense of having to prove myself.

Teenage kicks: Rose celebrates finishing fourth at Birkdale in 1998 with mother Annie and late father Ken

‘I’m over that part of my life. I feel the years of having to live up to what I did at Birkdale, or surpass it or justify it or whatever — that’s gone. It’s just part of my story.’

We met on the eve of the Scottish Open last week. Rose was hosting a clinic for TaylorMade, one of his sponsors, and, bogged down with allergies, he was feeling dreadful.

It just sums up what a player he has become that he could go from that state to turn in such a commanding performance over the following four days to win the event. His victory in his previous start in the Quickens Loans National in America’s capital had been all about guts and determination. At Royal Aberdeen he showed all the class of a man now ranked rightly in the world’s top three golfers.

‘I went to Washington feeling like it had been a slow start to the year,’ said Rose. ‘I had played some good golf but nothing had really happened.

‘And then, on the first day, I was four over par after nine and obviously not playing well. To end up winning was unbelievable. It was an out-of-the blue win if ever there was, and what has given me so much confidence are the putts I holed on the 17th and 18th holes.

‘I’d never holed a good putt to win a tournament. I’d always had two putts for it, or a tap-in. So now I’m standing over this 20-foot putt and Fooch (his caddie, Mark Fulcher) has spelled out that this is one I have to make.

‘Now I’m developing the belief that when I need to make some putts I can make them. It started at the Ryder Cup at Medinah against Phil Mickelson in the singles and now this win. Now the whole year has been tipped into a more positive light. I can relax and freewheel a bit, knowing I’ve got wins under my belt, I don’t have to worry about the Ryder Cup and I’m grateful for the lift. These wins gave me a boost in all sorts of ways.’

Rose began the Scottish Open last week seeing it purely as a tune-up for The Open. ‘As the week went on that all changed,’ he said. ‘I hung around on day one and then played really well in the second round and started to really enjoy myself.

‘It’s a great event in its own right on a great course. I’d never won a tournament in Scotland, the home of golf, so it was a fabulous week.’

Great Scot: The world No 3 was delighted to win north of the border for the first time

He knows what comes next. Hype and expectation ramped up to the Nth degree. It’s an unequivocal blessing to have a home crowd in many sports but in golf, when you have so much time to think between shots, it can be a negative.

‘It’s the best feeling in the world if you’re playing well but if you’re off your game a bit you can sense the crowd getting edgy and you have to be careful that doesn’t affect you mentally,’ he said.

Rose took in Wimbledon recently and was delighted to bump into Jack Nicklaus. Like Rory McIlroy two weeks earlier, he was eager to pick the great man’s brain. ‘I’m always interested in talking to him about how he prepped for majors,’ said Rose. ‘How can you not learn from him? We talked about the patience you need over the first three days and just trying to put yourself in position. My favourite stat about Jack is not that he won 18 majors but he finished second in 19 more. That’s over nine years of his life that he finished first or second in majors. Isn’t that incredible?’

Winning three tournaments in a row is an awful lot to ask when you’ve never previously won two but again, Rose will turn back the clock to 2006 for perspective.

By Royal appointment: Rose, sitting next to rugby legend Brian O'Driscoll, at Wimbledon earlier this month

‘If you’d panned my life out while I was sitting on that boat in exactly the way it has unfolded I would definitely have taken that,’ he said. ‘Dealing with the challenge of trying to win three tournaments in a row is the one all pros want.

‘When you’re not playing majors and you haven’t got your form, that’s the hard part. It feels such a long way back before you’re playing well again. Now I can just turn up and be myself. I don’t have to play great all week or play out of my skin. I need to do a good job over the first three days, see where I am and give myself a chance. If that happens I believe in myself now to go on and win. It’s so much more fun when you reach this stage and a more relaxed way of going into majors.’

Could he turn out to be the unlikely hero of this British sporting summer? Wouldn’t that be a victory for modesty and decorum? Rose offers a lovely, wry response.

Nothing to prove: The Englishman lifts his first major trophy at last year's US Open

‘It has been the opposite of last summer so far, hasn’t it, when Andy (Murray) did his thing at Wimbledon and the Olympics and all the other successes? So let’s hope the law of averages plays its part.

‘We’ve been through all these disappointments, whether it be in rugby, football, cricket or the Tour de France.

‘Let’s just hope the pendulum has swung in our favour.’

Justin Rose was speaking at the anniversary of the #1 Driver on Tour – the TaylorMade SLDR. To find out more about SLDR and the innovation behind Loft Up visit: http://www.taylormadegolf.co.uk/